(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for processing of silver halide color photographic materials for photography and more particularly, to an improved photographic process which provides a color image having improved stability.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
A silver halide color photographic material for photography is imagewise exposed, followed by color development wherein a dye-forming coupler reacts with the oxidation products of an aromatic primary amine developing agent to form a color image. This method usually comprises a subtractive color processes wherein blue, green and red colors are reproduced by the formation of complementary color images, i.e. yellow, magenta and cyan color images, respectively.
In a color photographic process, a color dye-forming coupler is incorporated in a light-sensitive photographic emulsion layer or a different, color image-forming layer and reacts with the oxidation products of a color developing agent formed upon development to produce a non-diffusible dye.
A color photographic image can generally be formed by imagewise exposing a silver halide color photographic material for photography, color developing the exposed material with a color developer comprising an aromatic primary amine developing agent such as paraphenylenediamine, and subsequently bleaching, fixing, water washing and/or stabilizing the developed material. In a color reversal process, a first development, water washing and reversal processing are done prior to a color development.
Recently, in automatic and continuous development processes for color photographic materials, preservation of the environment and conservation and recovery of silver resources have become major concerns and for these purposes, various methods are now being studied. These methods include, for example, methods for prevention of environmental pollution, for effective recovery of silver, for reduction of the amount of required washing water or stabilizing solution, and for reuse of washing water and stabilizing solution.
For example, a multistage countercurrent system has been proposed wherein two or more baths for water washing or stabilizing are provided and washing water or the stabilizing solution is replenished countercurrently so as to substantially reduce the amount of the replenishing material used. This system makes it possible to significantly reduce the amount of waste liquid and enviromental pollution as well as to decrease the amount of water used and to reuse the water.
Japanese Patent Application (OPI) (unexamined published application) No. 57-8543 discloses a process for stabilizing a photographic material after it is fixed, wherein the fixed material is processed through two or more stabilizing baths to which the stabilizing solution is replenished countercurrently. The amount of the stabilizing solution replenished in this process is relatively small and it is 3 to 50 times the volume of stabilizing solution taken into the bath from the preceding one, which substantially decreases the amount of water used in this process, and therefore it is very advantageous from the viewpoint of environmental preservation and water conservation, which are now of great concern.
However, when a color photographic material for photography is processed by this process wherein the multistage countercurrent system is used to reduce the volume of washing water or stabilizing solution, the resulting photographic material is extremely low in stability of color images, among which the stability of the magenta color image is particularly bad.